International News

Mar 27, 2019

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7:01AM

Five European countries reject US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Golan as Israeli territory

AFP

Five European countries that sit on the UN Security Council have rejected US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize the Golan as Israeli territory. They have voiced concern that the move could have broad consequences.

Belgium, Britain, France, Germany and Poland have insisted that the European position has not changed and that the Golan remains Israeli-occupied Syrian territory, in line with international law enshrined in UN resolutions.

Belgian Ambassador Marc Pesteen de Buytswerve told reporters that they do not recognize Israel's sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, including the Golan Heights.

Three UN Security Council resolutions called on Israel to withdraw from the Golan which it seized from Syria in the 1967.

On Monday, Trump signed a proclamation in which the United States recognized the strategic plateau as Israeli territory, breaking with decades of US policy.